A conventional fishing line guide mounted on a fishing rod for guiding a line includes a frame mounted on an outer surface of the rod directly or via a support leg, and a guide ring secured on the frame. A fishing line is admitted through the guide ring. The fishing line guide mounted at the tip end of a tip rod is referred to as a top guide. Such a top guide has a rod insertion pipe projected from the frame and into which the tip end of the tip rod is inserted. The top guide is attached to the fishing rod via its rod insertion pipe by, for example, bonding (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-210894 (the “'894 Publication”)).
Conventional top guides such as disclosed in '894 Publication have a substantial weight due to the rod insertion pipe extending from the frame. Such a rod insertion pipe makes it difficult to reduce the weight of the top guide. Moreover, since the fishing rod and the frame are indirectly connected to each other via the rod insertion pipe, fish bites might be sensed less sharply at the butt end of the fishing rod.
The present disclosure is intended to overcome the above problems. One object of the present disclosure is to provide a lightweight fishing line guide that allows sharp sensing of fish bites.